AIIMS expert confirms dehydration, activist Sonam Wangchuk refuses treatment
New Delhi: Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, on the 21st day of his hunger strike, was admitted to Safdarjung Hospital on Saturday with generalised weakness. Despite an independent expert from AIIMS endorsing the hospital's assessment that he urgently requires fluid and electrolyte therapy, Wangchuk has refused intravenous fluids, oral rehydration solution and all medication.
Dr Akshay Kumar, additional professor of emergency medicine at AIIMS, examined the 59-year-old activist and concurred that immediate oral or intravenous fluid and electrolyte therapy is medically indicated to prevent further deterioration and potentially serious complications. An AIIMS doctor has also joined the treating team for continuous monitoring.
According to the hospital's health bulletin, Wangchuk remains conscious and haemodynamically stable but shows clinical signs of dehydration. Investigations revealed low serum potassium, blood sugar of 78 mg/dL and compensated metabolic acidosis—a condition where prolonged fasting and dehydration cause acid buildup while the body maintains its acid-base balance. Urinary ketones rose from 1+ to 3+ by 1 pm, indicating worsening starvation-related ketosis.
Despite repeated counselling by the treating team and the AIIMS expert, Wangchuk declined treatment. The hospital said efforts continue to persuade both Wangchuk and his family to accept the recommended therapy.
Wangchuk's wife, Gitanjali J. Angmo, posted on X that nothing should be administered without the consent of the family and the doctors who had been monitoring him over the past 20 days. She later wrote to the medical superintendent seeking his discharge, alleging that the family had been denied access to laboratory reports and prevented from obtaining a second medical opinion. She also claimed that doctors monitoring him at the protest site were not allowed to meet him and that the family wanted to shift him to a medical facility of their choice.
The admission followed a medical examination of Wangchuk and other protesters at Jantar Mantar a day earlier, where doctors found signs of mild dehydration and warned that he had entered the third stage of prolonged fasting, when organ involvement becomes a concern.
Wangchuk has been on a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar, consuming only salt and water. The protesters had planned a march to Parliament on Monday.
The hospitalisation comes less than 48 hours after the Union health ministry placed three central government hospitals on alert and designated Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital as the nodal centre for any medical emergency involving the protesters. The ministry directed medical teams from RML Hospital, VMMC & Safdarjung Hospital and Lady Hardinge Medical College to conduct twice-daily examinations, deploy round-the-clock nursing staff, keep emergency medical support ready and submit daily health reports.
